Portrait of Jonathan Edwards. Courtesy of Jonathan Edwards OnLine

Introduction

On Sunday, July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan theologian and pastor at the First Church of Northampton, MA, travels to Enfield, Connecticut and preaches Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which later becomes his most famous sermon. The reaction from the congregation is astounding. The audience becomes virtually hysterical. At one point, his sermon becomes inaudible. His voice is drowned out by the sounds of the liste ners’ distressed weeping, and Edwards has to stop and ask them to quiet down.¹

Upon reading this description of the listeners’ reaction, an image of an 18^th century version of Jimmy Swaggert may immediately pop into mind. Surprisingly, though, Edwards is claimed to have merely read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and in a calm, even manner(Baym,474). However, although the delivery style may have been tranquil, the content of the sermon certainly was not. It is full of "fire and brimstone,"passionate and dramatic. Edwards very effectively uses metaphors and similes to warn us of the precariousness of our state. Edwards was sincerely concerned for people's salvation, and he believed that they had t o do more than just understand religious ideas. They also had to be "moved by them . . . know them experientially" such as when a reader actually becomes "burned" by "the word fire" when he reads it(Baym, 440).

Edwards certainly does his utmost in Sinnersto ensure that the audience will be singed by the hellish fires awaiting below them. He combines logical reasoning with images that provoke visceral reactions to make the reader or listener feel the f ire. Even fervent non-belivers probably wouldn't help but feel a tinge of discomfort at envisioning "hell open[ing] its mouth wide to receive them"(Baym, 476). Upon reading the sermon, it isn't difficult to understand the power these images ha d on the faithful Puritans, especially considering that the sermon took place during the Great Awakening. Everyone is a product of their time, and in order to understand the congregants' near hysteria as well as the duality of emotion and reason in Edwards' sermon, the context of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God need to be studied.

Crisis of Faith & The Great Awakening

The Influence of the Enlightenment

The Chronology of the Life of Jonathan Edwards*

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God*

List of Works Cited

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